Monday, December 1, 2014

MADE IN

Creator: Stephen HayesCollection: Collection of the Artist, currently on display at the African American
Museum in Philadelphia

MADE IN, 2012

This week, I'd like to start with a visual exercise. Look closely at the two images below (MADE IN, to the left, and The Brookes Ship to the right).

The Brookes Ship, 1789

What similarities and differences do you notice? They're both images of boats, yes. One is a diagram, while another appears to be a photograph of a 3-dimensional object. One was created in 1789, the other 223 years later. Removed from their context, it might be a challenge to understand how these images relate (besides being boats), or what they represent. Interpreted within the context of Cash Crop, however, their powerful connection and important message becomes hauntingly clear.Let's start with the diagram. While conducting image research for a printmaking class at the Savanna College of Art and Design (SCAD), artist Stephen Hayes came across an image diagramming the Brooks Ship, a boat that
operated within the transatlantic slave trade from about 1781 to 1806. During
its 25 year lifespan, the ship carried over 5000 Africans. This diagram of the ship was published in 1789 by a
member of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in
England. It depicts how the ship was designed to stowe 454 slaves, exactly the legal limit of slaves a ship of its size could transport. Prior to a law enacting this limit in 1788, the Brooks had crammed up to 609 slaves onto its lower decks at a time. You can learn more about the history of
the ship, here.

Hayes' Brooks Diagram

The image and story of the Brooks ship stuck with Hayes, and it became a central motif for his MFA thesis at SCAD and the exhibition, Cash Crop was born.Having already traveled to institutions in North Carolina and Georgia, the exhibit is currently on display at The African American Museum in Philadelphia.Put simply, Cash Crop examines how people and goods are imported and exported. Not only does the artist look at the Transatlantic slave trade, but also addresses the modern injustices of sweatshops and unfair labor. As the introductory text panels states (in an informal museum voice), the exhibit links “the millions who were transported in slave ships like cargo in years past and the millions today who are confined to factories, like extensions of machines.” Throughout the exhibit, interpretations of the Brooks Ship appear in cement casts, prints and drawings, and etched into a quilt panels made of fiber board.

The artist with his piece entitled, Gluttony

Detail of wall of wooden boxes with cast cement ships

Now, let's return to the image of the 3-dimensional boat entitled MADE IN. In a few pieces, including this one, the artist steps away from the Brooks ship motif. Instead of referencing a historical object, MADE IN highlights a more contemporary item that visitors will recognize. At first glance, you probably missed them, but The sails of the ship are composed of simple white labels, each printed with the name of a country. See now?

Detail of MADE IN's sails

Stitched into nearly every item of clothing, stamped onto the bottom of home goods, printed on consumer packaging, today, product labels are ubiquitous. Sure, they inform consumers where items were produced, but Hayes challenges viewers to consider ideas like, 'Who makes these tags, and the products they label?' and 'Is this ship, seemingly bloated with cargo, full of slaves or products made by the enslaved?' In some sense, here are a bunch of little flags waving in protest, waving to wake us up to the realities of present-day labor conditions.

Still, the beautiful curve of the wooden ship, and the gracefulness of its sails can be disarming; at a distance, this object doesn't immediately evoke the realities of sweatshop labor. However, within the context of the exhibit, it is difficult to ignore the darker narrative this vessel, and its sails implies.

Close-up of figures

Hayes' life-sized figures

Nearby stand 15, startlingly realistic life-sized cement figures. Each is shackled by steel chains, and bound to a wooden shipping pallet that resembles a small boat or coffin. These statues symbolize the 15 million African people forced into the slave trade between 1540 and 1850. While these objects reference the past, the statues seem to represent modern day sweatshop workers, as well. For me, these figures deepened my ability to interpret MADE IN, for here, I saw the people behind the product tags.
Anyone with an interest in contemporary social justice issues such as race, gender, politics, economics, consumerism, poverty, and human trafficking may find MADE IN to be an important and provocative piece. Artistic-minded individuals may also appreciate it as a finely-crafted piece of woodworking.
Viewers strictly interested a historical narrative about the Transatlantic slave trade might not be interested in this MADE IN. Some individuals may not wish to discuss contemporary issues of human trafficking and labor conditions. Perhaps they do not wish to confront their connection to the problem, find the matter too distressing, or may simply be apathetic to issues that they feel are out of their control.

An alternate view of this exhibit might argue that
sweatshops are merely a reality of contemporary economics; it's just supplying the products
that consumers demand. In this narrative, the laborers are stripped of their
humanity in an effort to allow the consumer to maintain his or her innocence.

In order to better understand “Made In” it might be helpful
to explore international labor laws, as well as the history of cash crops. One could learn more about human trafficking through CNN's The Freedom Project or through books like Human Trafficking Around the World: Hidden in Plain Sight, by investigative journalist Stephanie Hepburn.

It would also be interesting to learn about the ways the
Brooks (or Brookes, as it is spelled in the UK) Ship has been interpreted by
other artists. The live recreation pictured in the photo below, which took
place at the York Castle Museum. Pretty intense, right? Read more about it, and
other related exhibits, here.

Recreation at the York Castle Museum

Anti-Slavery Broadside

As text panel about the Brooks ship notes, the ship’s
diagram was used in broadsides and posters throughout London, Philadelphia, and New
York. The graphic of the ship was distributed on posters and broadsides in shocked and awakened the general public to the horrors of the slave trade. To further engage visitors with this object, I would create a workshop where visitors would learn more about the historical significance of broadsides, and then create their own posters of protest. After studying MADE IN and several samples of broadsides, visitors would find the tags on their clothing. Identifying the manufacturer and/or country where their personal items were made, they would conduct research about that company and/or the labor conditions of that country using online tools like http://www.free2work.org/. Their broadside would be based on these findings. I challenge you to do your own research--where and by whom are your clothes made? Are there people being harmed or exploited in one or more steps along the process? Are there changes you can and should make as a consumer to support a more just system of supply and demand?